3rd Grade Update

Is it really November? How did that happen?! My great plans for updating the blog every week have not worked out--sorry about that! Hopefully we're in the swing of things, and I can update a little more frequently now.

Our new reading program has kept us very busy learning nouns, proper nouns, plural nouns, irregular plural nouns, and now possesive nouns. Verbs, action verbs, subjects, predicates, conjunctions, and more. (Oh my!) We've also been learning how to write different types of passages, why authors choose to write what they write, reading for a purpose and predicting what will happen. Weekly vocabulary, amazing and spelling words are definitely increasing our language, and the question of the week gets us thinking and discussing some great topics. It's a good program that keeps us going 100 miles an hour.

Most of the kids are excited to be getting some pen pals in the next week or so. My sister-in-law teaches 2nd grade in Tremonton, and we will be writing to her class. It will be exciting to use some of the skills we've learned in writing in a real-life setting.

We are working on subtraction in math. We've talked about why and when we subtract, and have been practicing setting up story problems. Learning to regroup (or borrow) has been pretty smooth for almost everyone. Yesterday we talked about subtracting when there are zeroes in the top number. (500-321=) When you have a few extra minutes :) it would be great to give your child a couple of problems for practice. Even better would be to give them a real-life example and have them set-up the problem to solve. (If we want to buy a game that costs $14.00, and we have $12.50, how much more money do we need?)

We will be wrapping up our unit on skeletal and muscular systems before Thanksgiving. The class is a little worried about memorizing the names of the bones. (I keep reminding them that there are 206 bones, and I'm only asking them to memorized about 15!) We'll keep practicing the names in class, and they should bring home a sheet that you can help them memorize at home.

Thanks for all of your support at home. I'm very impressed that my students are right on top of things. They're getting their math facts done every night, their spelling lists and reading calendars are coming back each Friday, and I can count on them to finish work at home when they need to. I know that life gets really busy, and I'm grateful that parents and students have made schoolwork a priority. Keep up the good work!

Reading Street Information for the week of November 15-19

Question of the week: "How have plants and animals adapted to solve problems?"

Reading Selection: "Amazing Bird Nests" (Can be accessed on the successnet.com website)

Spelling words:
1. father
2. chapter
3. other
4. alphabet
5. watch
6. English
7. weather
8. catch
9. fashion
10. shrink
11. pitcher
12. flash
13. athlete
14. trophy
15. nephew
16. northern
17. establish
18. emphasis
19. hyphen
20. challenge

Vocabulary words:
1. bill (body part of a bird)
2. goo (sticky substance)
3. hunters
4. platform
5. twigs
6. material (ex: wood is a common material used to make homes)
7. tons